Category Archives: Victoria

Alleged rape victim ‘could have done a lot better’ if she had made up claims against well-connected Melbourne man, court told

Posted on by

Prosecutor tells court that ‘gaps or inconsistencies’ in the woman’s account ‘enhances her credibility’, but the defence maintains she is lying

A woman who accused a well-connected Melbourne man of rape “could have done a much better job” if she was inventing the story for money, a Melbourne court has heard.

But the accused’s lawyer has described the prosecution’s case as a “horrendous mixture” of “lies, fabrications, inconsistencies, [and] evidence that has been found to be demonstrably untrue”.

Continue reading...

Australian ski resorts smash July climate records with temperatures 12C above average

Posted on by

Resorts in New South Wales and Victoria face a warm and dry start to the season with only sporadic falls of natural snow in many alpine areas

Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum temperatures up to 12C above average.

Ski areas of Mount Hotham and Falls Creek set July records for their hottest daytime and night-time temperatures and Thredbo also set a new hottest July day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Continue reading...

Victoria announces new social media ‘demasking’ powers for accounts accused of vilification

Posted on by

New laws would give Vcat power to force social and AI platforms to identify anonymous users in move premier says will protect children

Social media companies could be forced to identify anonymous accounts accused of online vilification, under new laws being proposed in Victoria.

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, announced a suite of social media reforms on Sunday, saying families needed new ways to protect their children online.

Continue reading...

Moira Deeming drops legal case against Victorian Liberal party and makes last-ditch bid to avoid disendorsement

Posted on by

State MP abandons supreme court challenge, saying her party ‘can now decide whether to pursue mediation or reconvene to disendorse me’

Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has dropped legal action against her own party as she seeks to make a last-ditch appeal to avoid being disendorsed before the state election.

Deeming launched an 11th-hour supreme court challenge against the Victorian Liberal party president, Brian Loughnane, on 3 July after she made an assault allegation against former leader Matthew Guy and subsequently rejected calls to apologise after Victoria police determined “there was no offence detected”.

Continue reading...

David Penman wasn’t happy with his local Victorian council. So, he privately prosecuted five councillors

Posted on by

Legal action by the Daylesford small business owner has forced councillors to stand down – leaving only two able to serve

David Penman wasn’t happy.

The Daylesford small business owner didn’t like the work of his local council. So, using little-known laws that force elected officials to stand down, he essentially stopped it from making any big decisions.

Continue reading...

Layla Jeffery, 13, was ‘somewhat shy’ and ‘well-liked’. A Victorian town is struggling with her alleged murder

Posted on by

Donald – a small community about 280km from Melbourne – is grieving after a missing teenager was found dead

In the week after Layla Jeffery failed to return home in the early hours of 4 July, residents in the tiny Victorian town of Donald worriedly shared posts about the missing 13-year-old girl.

One woman, who was receiving chemotherapy treatment in the town last week, wrote on Facebook that she felt “sick” at the thought of something happening to Layla. Others shared a post from police, asking for any information about her whereabouts.

Continue reading...

Pianist Jayson Gillham ‘very disappointed’ after losing Melbourne Symphony Orchestra discrimination case

Posted on by

The federal court on Friday threw out the concert pianist’s case against the MSO, finding he was not unfairly dismissed due to Gaza war comments

The concert pianist at the centre of a high-profile unfair dismissal case has revealed his deep disappointment with his courtroom defeat.

Federal court justice Graeme Hill on Friday threw out Jayson Lloyd Gillham’s case against the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, finding he was not unfairly dismissed.

Continue reading...

‘Like a father to us’: pride and protest as thousands flock to see Narendra Modi in Melbourne

Posted on by

Indian prime minister wows crowd of 25,000 at Marvel Stadium as he praises role of diaspora in the India-Australia success story

The throb of the drum beats intensified as the crowd of 25,000 Indian Australians prepared to welcome India’s prime minister back to Melbourne after more than a decade.

As Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese stepped on to the red carpet at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night, twinkling phone lights illuminated the feverish audience as they chanted “Modi, Modi, Modi.”

Continue reading...

Telstra blames ‘software defect’ for major outage that hit mobiles, trains and triple-zero calls

Posted on by

Telco said outage was not due to a cyber-attack but warned of scammers calling people claiming to be from Telstra

Telstra has blamed a “software defect” that changed the time servers for a major outage in which thousands of mobile customers were unable to make calls or access data on the country’s largest network on Wednesday morning.

The telco, which powers about 25m mobile services nationwide, confirmed the outage on Wednesday, with all services restored by 4pm AEST.

Continue reading...

Third teenager charged after 15-year-old Melbourne boy allegedly left to die from stab wounds

Posted on by

Darweish Mohamed was found critically wounded outside Craigieburn community hospital on Wednesday evening

A third teenager has been charged over the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy found outside a Melbourne hospital.

A 14-year-old from Victoria’s Hume area was arrested on Friday evening and was charged with murder, police said.He has been scheduled to appear before a children’s court.

Continue reading...

Details of MCG assault against Lidia Thorpe revealed after court lifts suppression order

Posted on by

Ebony Bell convicted and handed community work order following assault on senator and second ‘gratuitous act of violence’ while on bail

A woman has been handed a community work order for punching Lidia Thorpe outside the MCG over claims the independent senator disrespected her mother.

Ebony Bell was initially told to undertake an anger management course after her 2024 attack on Thorpe, but committed a second “gratuitous act of violence” while on bail, the Melbourne magistrates court was told in June.

Continue reading...

Jacinta Allan admits criminals infiltrated Big Build but rejects calls for royal commission

Posted on by

Premier apologised over organised crime in some of Victoria’s largest construction projects, in op-ed that claimed a royal commission would not solve the issue

Jacinta Allan has admitted that criminals have infiltrated some of Victoria’s largest construction projects – but has again rejected growing calls for a royal commission into alleged corruption involving unions and labour hire companies.

In an opinion piece published in the Age on Thursday night, the premier wrote that “we now know that criminals operated on some of Victoria’s construction sites” during projects dubbed by the Labor government as the Big Build.

Continue reading...

Moira Deeming wins temporary reprieve as Victorian Liberal party postpones decision on her future

Posted on by

State opposition tells court it will not take any steps to disendorse MP while legal proceedings under way

A Victorian Liberal MP who sued her party to stave off a meeting that will determine her political future has been handed a temporary lifeline.

Moira Deeming launched an eleventh-hour supreme court challenge against the Victorian Liberal party president, Brian Loughnane, and the party on Friday morning, seeking a temporary injunction to stop the meeting.

Continue reading...

Melbourne stabbing: teenagers arrested after boy left outside Craigieburn hospital dies

Posted on by

Fifteen-year-old unable to be saved after being left outside Craigieburn Community hospital

Two teenagers have been arrested after a 15-year-old boy was left for dead with suspected stab wounds outside a hospital in Melbourne.

The boy was found critically injured outside Craigieburn Community hospital on Lygon Drive, in Melbourne’s north, about 7.50pm on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Josh Burns says partner Georgie Purcell faces antisemitic abuse because he is Jewish, commission hears

Posted on by

The royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion hears how witnesses are subjected to hate speech amplified by misogyny

Vile, threatening abuse is being levelled at witnesses to the antisemitism royal commission, the inquiry has heard, while a Labor MP has said attacks on his partner were heightened because they were stacked with misogyny.

Meanwhile, data analysis has shown how quickly factual reports are transformed into conspiracy theories online, and that while there was a spike in antisemitism after the Bondi terror attack, there was a “huge spike” in anti-Muslim hate.

Continue reading...

Victorian premier accused of ‘nonsense’ for blaming inflation amid gangland allegations over cost blowouts

Posted on by

Jacinta Allan resists calls for royal commission into state’s $100bn Big Build infrastructure project as pressure mounts following new reports

An integrity expert says Jacinta Allan blaming “inflationary pressures” rather than corruption for cost blowouts on the state’s $100bn Big Build is “nonsense”, as the Victorian premier resists growing calls for a royal commission.

Allan on Monday declared that “inflationary pressures on projects is not corruption” after Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes reported allegations that money from the state’s Big Build infrastructure projects was being paid to gangland figures and that the state government was warned about cost blowouts due to Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) demands.

Continue reading...

‘No offence detected’: Victoria police close investigation into Moira Deeming allegation of assault by Matthew Guy

Posted on by

Guy accuses Deeming of making ‘ridiculous and unsubstantiated’ claims as state Liberal party grapples with fallout

Police have concluded their investigation into Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming’s allegation that her colleague Matthew Guy assaulted her, making the finding “no offence detected”.

Deeming had reported to police on 16 June that Guy, the opposition’s public transport spokesperson, had assaulted her at a Macedonian community event in Sunshine on 23 May.

Continue reading...

Victorian Liberal MP Matthew Guy denies accusation he assaulted Moira Deeming in incident allegedly captured by CCTV

Posted on by

Police confirm they are investigating as sources close to Guy say he vehemently denies the allegations and is considering legal action

The Victorian Liberal party is in turmoil just five months out from the state election after MP Moira Deeming accused colleague Matthew Guy of assaulting her at a community event.

Sources close to Guy, the opposition’s public transport spokesperson, said he vehemently denies the allegation, which is being investigated by police, and is considering a defamation legal action against Deeming.

Continue reading...

St Kilda pier wins peak Victorian architecture award as judges praise playful and ‘deeply civic’ design

Posted on by

State government project among range of works celebrated for community-centred design that goes beyond utility

The reimagined St Kilda pier has added more accolades to its burgeoning trophy cabinet, taking out some of the top gongs at the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects’ Victorian awards.

The $53m Victorian government project redesigned by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, alongside Site Office Landscape Architecture and AW Maritime, took home the Victorian architecture medal on Friday, the award given to the most outstanding project of the year.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

Inquest into Melbourne influencer’s death following freebirth halted after new phone evidence discovered

Posted on by

Coroner tells inquiry new material ‘of such significance’ any findings must be postponed so information can be analysed

The closing submissions in an inquest into the death of a woman who gave birth at home with no support from medically trained health workers has been delayed, after new evidence came to light after a forensic analysis of her mobile phone.

Stacey Warnecke, a 30 year-old nutritionist, died on 29 September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne.

Continue reading...